You ain't fixing this yourself. Some of those vehicles have a bad rap with head gaskets and yours might be one of them. Send it out. In my book, if you call the pan plug a " thingy " you don't have the experience. The quick fix is a quart of BarsLeak and sell it 1/2 hour later. Good luck. Bottom line. Nobody is fixing this over the "net" someone has to see the car. I've seen " kids " at the gas station fill the rad over flow tank with oil because they couldn't find the engine oil fill. As a joke i've given " kids " antifreeze to put into an air cooled V.W. They poured it into the engine. Bad joke, don't do it. If you think the repairs are too much money part it out. You should get most of your money back if you hold out for the higher prices. Hope you get it sorted. Again, Good luck.

Must be an older home that used cast iron or steel pipes leftover from the gravity heat days perhaps, converted steam or an old time plumber. The boiler will have a pressure reducing valve to keep water in the boiler typically in the 12-15 lb range, cold. It will expand as heated thus; there most likely is an expansion tank too. As far as antifreeze, most often use in radiant systems where the tube is buried and if frozen and breaks difficult to access. Antifreeze can be used in your system, NEVER AUTO ANTIFREEZE, soNon-Toxic Hydronic antifreeze is used in about a 30% concentration offering freeze protection to about -10 and burst protection to about -50. Most antifreezes contain corrosion inhibiters and if maintained prolong seals, pumps, piping and boiler however antifreeze is also a insulator and affect heats transmission as much as 10%.

Reblow & replace the gizmo. If you happen to have a spare winter plug in good shape, use that instead and a 1/2 empty gallon bottle of antifreeze, closed tight and in the skimmer up side down. If the skimmer is full because of the pool level, wear a rubber glove and rain gear. Tape the wrist to keep yourself dry as you blow the line from the pump and plug the line as it's blowing. Send an email to poolguynj-1@comcast.net and I can give you my cell # if you run into trouble. I am in the same storm. Scott

A pipe or hose that's open at both ends (pump or open valve count as open) is very unlikely to break when frozen. Virtually impossible. So I would not add anti freeze or do anything to try and close the pipe. You can research this but you have to wade thru tons of people who repeat myths, but the info is out there. It's worth learning cause what you're planning is a lot more work and expanse. The myth is that ice expands. What really happens is water expands when it turns into ice. In homes pipes often freeze where the pipe comes into the house or in an exterior wall. That creates a plug. All the valves inside the house close one end of the pipe and the ice closes the other and. Now as more of the pipe freezes the water expands pushing the water in that closed section. As this continues the water pressure in that closed section increases until the weakest part breaks. Broken pipes from freezing almost always break far a away from the actual frozen section. When the pipe is open at both ends the water pressure inside the pipe stays at about zero. As water expands into ice it can push water out of the pipe if needed to make room. Problems only happen when there's no place for the water to escape. This is why opening a tap a bit to drip will keep pipes from busting. The myth in this case is that moving water doesn't freeze which is only slightly true since rivers and waterfalls certainly freeze. In this case an ice plug will stop the tap from dripping but will still allow an escape for water pressure and no busted pipes. I've seen lots of people have a pond with no freeze problems work really hard and spend lots of money to create freeze problems. Be smarter than the average bear.